Sports

Rangers hard to bet against

Somewhere farther down, you'll read that the London Knights are going to beat the Kitchener Rangers in seven games.

It's a pick going against my better judgment, a feeling that tells me to not, under any circumstances, bet against this Kitchener Rangers team.

The Rangers and Knights play Game 1 of their OHL Western Conference final Thursday at the John Labatt Centre.

It's a surprising matchup.

It's not surprising that the Knights are there. Most people will tell you they expected to see them in their conference final against the Plymouth Whalers.

There's the rub. The Whalers were supposed to be the one team the Knights were going to struggle against. The Whalers were big, strong, tough, had enough goaltending and scoring to knock off the OHL's top team.

Instead, the Whalers couldn't respond to a Rangers' team that refused to stop responding. It was the Rangers who showed toughness even though it was probably more mental than physical toughness. It was the Rangers who got good goaltending and timely scoring. It was the Rangers who came back from being down in Game 6 to win and then went to Plymouth to win a Game 7.

The Rangers were not supposed to have this kind of season. Most people expected them to be in one of those development years where they would play well but not push the big boys.

The Rangers have talent.

Their top guys are outstanding, players like Ryan Murphy, Michael Catenacci, Tobias Rieder, Radek Faksa and others but their overall depth was not supposed to measure up to other teams.

But somehow coach Steve Spott and his staff always manage to get something a little more out of his club. Like the Knights they've lost underage players to the NHL, players to injury yet somehow manage to always come up with a team that's ready to play.

This may have been one of Spott's best coaching jobs.

He'll need to squeeze just a little more out of his club yet again.

The Rangers had a 4-1-0-1 record against the Knights this year. But throw that out the window. The Whalers owned the Rangers and look what happened in that series. What happened during the regular season means little in playoff hockey.

This is going to be a good series.

The two teams have developed a real and bitter rivalry since moving into the same division.

It's a good matchup between teams that have plenty of skill and for London fans it promises to be the most exciting playoff series they've seen this year.

After picking London in four straight over the Spitfires and it happened, and picking the Knights in six over the Spirit and it happened, it should be with great confidence that we pick the Knights in a tough seven games against the Rangers.

But it's far from a confident. This Ranger team is like the dog that refuses to let go of your leg, no matter how long or hard you shake it.

They get the kind of gutty performances that often come out of nowhere. Tyler Randell was suspended for 10 games for a head shot. His first game back was Game 7 against Plymouth. He scored four goals.

The Knights are going to have to make do without Greg McKegg for Game 1. But otherwise, they are in pretty good shape. They've gradually gotten better the more they've played. The Knights didn't have to go balls to the wall to win either series. They've had some time off between series.

The Rangers have had two tough series. Game 7 against Plymouth was only Tuesday night. That will affect them.

But for the first time this year, it's a playoff series you can look forward to seeing.

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WESTERN DOMINANCE

There hasn't been an OHL Western Conference final without London, Kitchener or Windsor since 2001, when Plymouth and Erie met. Here's a look at how many times each of the 10 teams have reached the third round recently.